The year was 1993. One night in October, while kids were busy tricking or treating on Halloween, a couple of young men were quietly working on a project that they claimed would revolutionize the way humans interact with virtual environments. And they had a revelation!
Two weeks later, one of them managed to connect two computers, both running a level of the game they were developing. He invited his colleague John Romero to connect digitally. By connecting avatars who could communicate and interact in real time within a 3D space, this guy had created history!
That guy was John Carmack, the game was Doom — a revolutionary game that single-handedly defined the first-person shooter genre and, played an instrumental part in kickstarting LAN parties.
Everyone is invited
A LAN party is a casual gathering of two or more gamers who co-exist physically and virtually to play a list of predefined games on PC (not phones or consoles), with the intention of having fun and share a great time together. They usually attend in the house of one of them, with computers at hand to start playing.
The variety of games is extensive and each produces a different experience on the participating player. This is because they must adapt to the artistic, technological, cultural circumstances and challenges presented by each one of these games.
The popularity of these LAN parties has grown so surprisingly, that there are now a string of public and private initiatives worldwide that promote not only the social and virtual interaction, but also education and creation of new technologies through academic programs, conferences, workshops and project presentations.
From game development perspective, these LAN party-centered initiatives are extremely important for the independent producers who want to get in touch with other enthusiasts and together understand the gaming industry trends.
Social interaction is an essential human activity, and whatís better than to do it in an atmosphere of great participation and entertainment? If we take LAN parties to a whole new level with educational and productive development programs, we would greatly potentialize the creation of new technologies in the world. LAN parties are essential to the ethos of gaming, to have fun and build something.
Article by José Eduardo Téran, a game programming trainer at DSKIC, he hails from Venezuela. This Campus has trainers from UK, Venezuela, USA, France & Sri Lanka, which corroborates that the world is aware that the next big development in video game is happening in India and at DSKIC. For more information, visit dsksic.com.